Advances in medical care these days are progressing so rapidly it’s hard to keep track of all the new tech. But when you break a bone there’s still one traditional way of healing it: the plaster cast. It’s cheap and effective from a health care perspective, but for the user it’s cumbersome and often smelly. Jake Evill, a Victoria University of Wellington graduate, may have figured out what the next generation of casts will look like, and they’re actually quite sexy.

His concept is called Cortex, a custom, 3-D printed cast that would allow the wearer to have more freedom while their bones mend. As you can see int he diagram above it’s a pretty straightforward idea that’s been executed rather beautifully. Two questions come to mind when I look at this though: Would the material be strong enough to support and protect the broken limb, and how the hell do you get it off? Even so, it’s an incredibly strong concept, and if I break my arm some time in the next 10 years, I hope that this is a viable option.